The Home of Steven Barnes
Author, Teacher, Screenwriter


Saturday, March 12, 2005

Physical stuff

I haven't written much about physical stuff for a while, and almost leaped over it to talk heart-space.  The mention of Nicki seems to do that to me!  So a few thoughts:
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I'm working out five or six days a week, always taking Sunday off. The Bikram yoga is going well, and I'm going to experiment and see just how good it is at restoration and recovery.  The target: a club-bell "Century" workout.  I've tried for almost a year to approach Density training with the "Bruiser" clubbell, and found that my body just didnt' want to recover from it.  I couldn't get enough work on my joints and stressed tendons to effectively recover.  The Bruiser, although weighing only 45 pounds, has a massive amount of torque when you swing the bastard. I was going for a move called a "Gama Cast" which is sort of a figure eight, passing the mother back over  your head and shoulder.  Killer.  The goal is 100 without stopping.  A "density" workout, a plan that is popular on the Kettlebell and Clubbell forums, has  you doing 200 reps within a 40-minute workout, starting with 40 sets of 5, then 35 sets of 6, then sets of 7, and so forth.  It is insanely taxing.  Now, Bikram yoga claims to be the biggity-bomb at recovery.  I'll let you know.
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Aside from that, it's Silat djurus multiple times a day, looking forward to going to the silat family gathering in May.  The northwest bunch, headed up by the superb Stevan Plinck, are some genuinely talented and terrific people, and it'll be great fun to play with them again.
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So that's my working out for the near future: Yoga, Gama Casts, and Silat.  It's plenty, and covers every major (and most minor) fitness components.  My workouts take from between 40 minutes and 1 1/2 hours.  I guage my efficiency by the amount of energy I have in the day, how my body looks and feels, and how often I catch Tananarive looking at my butt.  Hey, everyone has his own standards.

Steve

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